ROCKY RIVER --
Lutheran West and senior Rory Zakareckis (W, 4-1) dominated the Columbia Raiders on Friday in a game that lasted only 59 minutes to play. Lutheran West jumped all over Columbia starter Jacob Aniol for seven runs in the first inning and never looked back.

Senior Jeremy Geye started the game off with a double in the left-center gap. After an infield single from senior Michael Berghaus and an error on a ground ball by senior Owen Albers to load the bases, all three runners scored on a triple by senior Alex Gavlak. A walk to junior Jake Albrecht and a double steal brought Gavlak home from third. Sophomore Hunter Albers then singled in Albrecht from second to make the score 5-0. Freshman Trey DeCicco singled, and Geye brought both Albers and DeCicco home on a double to make the score 7-0.

Hunter Albers, Geye and Berghaus all scored in the third to make it 10-0. The big hit was a two-out, two-RBI single from Zakareckis.

Junior John Smolik knocked in the eleventh run of the day when he singled in Albrecht and hit a double in his at-bat in the fourth.

On the mound, Zakareckis was in fine form. Columbia’s offense managed only five balls out of the infield: two singles, and the three weak fly-outs. No Columbia player ever made it to third base. And only once (with two outs in the fifth) did any Raider player make it to second. One pitch later, the game was over. It took Zakareckis only 46 pitches to shut down the Raiders for the mercy-rule shortened complete-game win.